"Hundreds of hectares of fertile cropland are completely inundated or washed away, placing hundreds of thousands of families at risk of food insecurity."

Farmers struggling to cope with erratic weather in Canada have dominated the news this summer, from drought on the Prairies to flooding in the east. Flooding in Houston, Texas devastated the city's citizens and shocked everyone with the unimaginable images it produced. But these extremes are not limited to North America.

In the past few weeks Nepal, Bangladesh and parts of India have experienced their most extreme rainfall in 15 years. The resulting floods and landslides injured and killed many, and have displaced hundreds of thousands more, not to mention destroyed homes, roads, bridges, crops and farm land critical to the nations' food supplies.

In Nepal, severe food shortages are feared, and observers are calling this one of the worst humanitarian crises in the region in years.

The full extent of the flooding damage isn't known yet - in many cases roads are impassable. (Photo: LI-BIRD)

The extent of the loss of life and damage isn't even known yet, because roads to the affected areas are still impassable in many cases.

Our trusted partner organization, Local Initiatives for Biodiversity, Research, and Development (LI-BIRD) normally delivers the Seeds of Survival program that you support to family farmers in Nepal. But right now, LI-BIRD is putting its extensive network to work to get emergency food and shelter to hard hit farming communities. LI-BIRD must address the immediate needs of food and shelter before it can continue its critical work of rebuilding farms and livelihoods through the provision of quality local seeds and training.

Nepal has experienced it's worst rainy period in 15 years. (Photo: LI-BIRD)

Our friend and colleague Dr. Balaram Thapa from LI-BIRD wrote to tell us about the situation:

"Hundreds of hectares of fertile cropland are completely inundated or washed away, placing hundreds of thousands of families at risk of food insecurity. The impact of flood disaster in Terai region, especially food production, is likely to have much wider impact nationally, as Terai region is Nepal's main breadbasket."

USC Canada has always worked in partnership and cooperation with local organizations and we are committed to supporting our international partners when they experience disasters in any way possible. LI-BIRD is working tirelessly to get shelter and food through their networks but they need our help to provide critical and immediate aid to avoid longer term food shortages.

Floods have swept away entire harvests. It's essential that farmers not only get emergency food, but support to replant their crops so the crisis does not get worse in the long run. (Photo: LI-BIRD)

This emergency comes while Nepal is still struggling to recover from the 2015 earthquake. Following the earthquake, our partners noted that the support USC Canada donors mustered in the days and weeks afterwards were essential for getting food aid to families in rural areas where government aid hadn't reached yet.

Local organizations like LI-BIRD are usually the best hope for timely and efficient emergency relief and support to those who need it. All donations made will be sent directly through to LI-BIRD to ensure quick, direct support. We can assure you that a donation to LI-BIRD via USC Canada today will go a long way toward helping the people of Nepal get back on their feet.

We’re called USC Canada because we started out way back in 1945 as the Unitarian Service Committee, founded by the energetic Dr. Lotta Hitschmanova. We’re still planting the seeds that Lotta sowed. Find out more about our founder, Dr. Lotta Hitschmanova.

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